Welcome Comrades to the 84th edition of the Dispatch Hippo is of gallivanting across the world, so I have the pleasure of presenting this issue to you, our dearly beloved readers.

Freestyle has the requisite Mafia column, with the intriguing Periodic Mafia highlighted. Saf also discusses a Mafia strategy that could aptly apply to Real Life as well, namely forgoing the use of something (a skill, money & whathaveyou) to gain an advantage in the long run. While his reference is related to the advantages of odd number of players in a mafia, I'm sure we can all see that it can sometimes be a worthwhile benefit to not expose your hands too early across all facets of life.

Masterli also goes into the interview room this issue, where he tries to avoid taking responsibility for the mysterious disappearance of our interrogator.The TPA3 design contest remains a highlight in the tournament arena, it's an easy way to participate in influencing future tournaments, and is pretty fun to boot! I'm also amazed at how much I can follow of DaveH's Tournament tips, it may seem intimidating at first, but when you look at the output scoring charts he produces, and the logical steps he follows in achieving them, it ends up being a breeze. And heck copy/paste still works if you don't have the head for code

In the Foundry, we are weaved a story of epic proportions by Qyu, while generalhead provides the lighter side to the critics corner!koontz also has an interesting discussion on the viability of taking Maps off the computer screen, and into your living room!

The main feature of clans, is on the CC3 Quarter-finals which are thoroughly deserving of their tag as the toughest battles on CC!

Hello again Freestylers. Masli is asked about KORT, family, and his nationality this issue. Also, we've got an ongoing question thread for our new admin El_Jefe here so please go drop him a question if you'd like to get to know him better. Otherwise, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and please enjoy the holidays.You Stay Classy, CC.

Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information, Mafia and You, and Rules and Terms of Mafia.Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.

What is "Mafia"?Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.

Mafia NewsPeriodic Table Mafia ended in a town win after the players were able to hang the last mafia goon with plenty of townies to spare. The SKer helped out town by killing the godfather on night one and some good logic and knowledge of the semi-open setup outed the SKer in due time. New mod samgrossy did a fine job in modding.

Mafia CalloutsCalling all players interested! Some mafia games need some filling:

Advanced Roles and Strategy by safariguy5An interesting thought experiment is proposed this issue.

Forgoing a Mafia Kill

What is It?As outlined in a mafiascum numbers analysis here, there is a possible reason for mafia not to kill if they are not forced to kill each night. In games where an odd number of players are alive at the start, mafia have a stronger theoretical chance of winning rather than games where an even number of players are alive at the start.

ExampleIf we have 1 mafia player in an 8 person game, the town has a 54.29% chance of winning. If we increase the number of players to 9 and still only have 1 mafia player, then town's chances of winning is now 45.31%.

How to Use this StrategyThere are two considerations that must be made when applying this strategy. First, the numbers generated by mafiascum assume random killings and lynchings. Secondly, they also assume only mafia and town are present and the mafia has an option to not kill. In the course of play, it's highly probable that mafia will out themselves or town power roles will discover scum. Also, the idea of mafia not being forced to send in a night kill usually runs counter to the spirit of the game. Town could just as easily no lynch to preserve the statistical advantage, and we would be deadlocked forever. Finally, it is rare for the mod to allow mafia to not kill in a night, and most cases of this happening usually occur when mafia forget to send in a night kill, although mods may choose to remind the group since it's such a pivotal action in the course of the game.

Q. Isn't loes super sexy? I (Ace Rimmer) know that's really not a question but I had to say it.

Hehehehe, we only have superrr sexy girls in our clan. I have no clue how Bruce does that…

Q. Have you ever met loes?

I think once we where 1 mile apart from each other, but unfortunately we didn’t meet. I have only met 1 person that plays on CC that I know of. My buddy sjnap

Q. Can I (Ace Rimmer) stay at your house if I visit the Netherlands?

Only if my GF is away with the kids

Q. Favorite teammate(s)? Favorite competitor(s)?

My favourite teammates are ofc sjnap & loes. We played so many games together… There are many more players I loved playing with, just don’t have the time anymore to play with them a lot.

Q. When is it my turn to get interviewed?

Yesterday, looks like you missed it.

Q. Where is the detonator?

Someone already used it to kill a conqueror

Q. Where is the isolator?

Look in the yellow pages.

Q. Where is the alligator?

Cows try to avoid them, we run away quickly

Q. How many alligators have you eaten?

No time to eat when running

Q. Where is the vibrator?

Ask your wife ducky.

Q. Do you keep it with the Mayo?

Nope, with the peanutbutter.

Q. When are you starting to work on Jr? or is it just practice runs so far?

A lot of practice runs, hahaha. We might start working on Jr after we moved into our new home next month.

Q. Did you shoot the interrogator?

IT WASN’T ME !

Q. Why did you answer stunna?

I don’t want him to start crying like a little baby(again…)

Q. Are you going to let Ace move in with you?

Hell NO !

Q. Why do you moo with some cows instead of joining a "real" clan, like e.g. the VDLL?

Did you ask this question before or after you started moo-ing

Q. How many times were you beaten in Whac-A-Mods back in the old days?

I have no clue, use gamefinder you laze bum

Q. Where did I (ManBungalow) put my keys?

In the door ?

Q. Did you jump or were you pushed?

Neither

Q. Do you miss been the clan director?

Nope, well… the 1st months I did, but it was a decision I made long before I left the mod team. I’m not as active as I was anymore, putting more time in my RL and that is much more fun for me!

Q. What was the most memorable clan war you seen?

Most memorable clan war is of course our own war vs THOTA. They had never been beaten before.

Q. Why could I (smegal69) not have my clan medal removed?

It was too far up…

Q. What clan do you hate the most?

Guests

Q. Is crack better smoked or sniffed?

I wouldn’t know, sry

Q. Are you or ?

I more

Q. In a war they kill each other, in a clan war they hug each other, should there be a lot more smack talk in clan war forums?

Would be great to have a hidden topic for both clan’s to do that so mods can’t interfere

Q. Where is Alaska?

Who cares ?

Q. If you were a pokemon what pokemon would you be?

pokemon ? Too old for that…

Q. What was the best Come From Behind Victory in a multi-partner game that you were part of? And who were your partners and opponents/map?

That’s an easy one : Game 5970669. It was a clan game in a war vs Brethren Fat Mermaid. Brann2006 already claimed victory in the topic for that game and started insulting his teammates after that. [url]http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/search.php?keywords=5970669&terms=all&author=&fid[]=442&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=98561&submit=Search[/url]

Q. Who is the BEST Dutch partner that is Female that you can think of?

Hahahaha, how much did loes pay you to ask this. (Oops… you can’t answer that anymore… so I don’t see the use in answering more of your questions)

Q. Describe your TeamCC experience.

I had a great time in TeamCC

Q. Do you think a moderator that disappears for weeks on time should be stripped of his colour?

Depends on the reason why.

Q. Why are Dutch so cool?

Because we are Dutch

Q. Why did you choose KoRT?

Many of my friends started that clan, after the clan I was in fell apart it was the most logical thing to do.

Q. Where is the interrogator?

Dunno

Q. Who will win CC3?

Kort ! Gonna be a hard fight, still have to beat OSA… and they are fighting hard !

Q. Who will win NC3?

Don’t care about NC

Q. Syrup, or Jelly?

Jelly !

Q. Now that its been a year and tempers have cooled, what would you say to people that think you cheated?

sjnap only plays with his own balls and he doesn’t know how to play sports.

Q. Why in the hell did you agree to do this interview?

Why not ?

Q. Is it my (#1_stunna) turn yet?

You don’t have any active games ducky

Q. Is being on Team CC a little like touring a sausage factory?Yup, hahahahaha

Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments! I have a couple of big things to announce.

First, there is only one week left to get your submissions in for the TPA 3 Cup Design Contest and show off your graphic talents! (Of course there are unfortunate souls like myself who have none, but for the other 90% of the population this is a great opportunity to shine.) Prizes, too!

Second, in this issue I bring you the long-promised interview with Merch313. A number of people have asked me when I'm going to interview their favourite TO, and the answer is here. It comes at a very special time, when Merch rose past HighlanderAttack and became the most prolific tournament organiser of all time. A year ago, I don't think anyone would have believed that HA's incredible record would ever fall, but fall it has (and we mean no disrespect to HA, who's achievements remain spectacular!)

Merch313 is no slouch. His 114 overall medals put him in the top 20 overall. Twenty-three are tournament cups, 7 are clan trophies, and another 7 are GAs, one of the most difficult medals to rack up. He is now also a Tournament Director, helping to keep the Ongoing forum on its toes, along with a variety of other duties. When I began speaking to Merch, he was still at 259, and hadn't yet reached the pinnacle:

Dukasaur: Okay, so let's start with the obvious first. You are now at 259 completed tournaments, and you have 32 more in progress. In a very short time you are expected to pass HighlanderAttack as the most prolific tournament organiser in Conquer Club history. What are your feelings as the moment approaches?

Merch 313: Honestly I never thought I would ever catch up to HA. You see HA is the person that showed me the ropes on running tourneys. So kinda weird that I'm actually going to pass him up here soon. I've been thinking of my 200th double elimination tourney more so then passing up HA. Which I just put up about a week ago so I'm excited about that.

Yes, you put it up 9 days ago and now you have 154 sign-ups. That is in itself pretty amazing. It goes to show how much support you've built up with your DE series.

So tell me some of the highlights: when did you begin your DE series, what have been some of the ups and downs?

Yeah been really happy with the support I've gotten from players here on CC. Thank you all..

My first DE tourney was on the Brazil map back in June 2010 (winner was Darin44). I started doing these DE tourneys as a filler between some bigger more complex tourneys. People seem to really enjoy playing in the so I just kept going and decided to try and go through all the maps here on CC and right now I believe I need like 30 more maps or so. Some maps fill up so quick and there are so many reserves I just make a part 2 to give everyone a chance to play. Well highlights of course are the 9 DE tourneys Ive won. (Lol, just messin') I think it was the 100th (Swifte won this one) and now it will be the 200th tourney. Well no downs yet, but I have some of the bigger maps I will have to do to complete all the maps like Hive, FNA, WWII Europe etc so not looking forward to those as those will take some time to finish. One more is one I have going on now on the Knights map. This one seems to have been going on forever. Being 1v1 with nuke settings seems to have been a bad idea.

You've certainly got quite a following.

I talked to BluU back in Issue 78 of the Dispatch, and here's what he had to say:

I encountered several time in the past when TOs promised to conduct a series on all the CC maps. But most of them abandon their series sooner rather than later. Merch didn’t promise, he just delivers.When you have a series which has 168 tournaments and counting. When HOF board is being kept and maintained, and when you know more tournaments will come, that’s just makes it more interesting than winning another 16 players classic map tournament. Merch also is doing a great job with notifying the players after the tournament on who won, and were he sits in the HOF board.

Do you find player feedback is a big part of what keeps you motivated to keep going?

Yes of course. I never intended my DE series to be where it is at today. But like I said earlier people seem to really like this series so I kept it going. I appreciate players like BluU (currently 2nd on on my HOF board with 18 wins) who sign up for everyone of my tourneys unless they fill too quick lol. I try to run my tourneys efficiently and constantly moving, sure ive had some bumps in the road but far and few between. I enjoy seeing new comers win them and enjoying knocking out the leaders **cough swiftenbluu** out of them

Ok, let's talk about some of the tournaments you've done besides the DE series. What are some of your favourites that you've done, besides the DEs?

One of my favorites was 313's InterClanGalatic War mainly because few other people tried to run a similar ones. Also some said it would never be done, but it got completed wasn't as smooth as I would have liked but complete none the less.

Large team tournies do seem like a lot of work. What were some of the problems there, how did you solve them, and did you learn new stuff that became useful later?

Seems like in every lengthy tourney players just drop. Some due to cutting back on CC some due to knowing their team has no chance to win. So that's the biggest issue Ive face in larger team tourneys. And its not just larger team tourneys team tourneys in general that are lengthy. What I have learned is as long as there is one dedicated player on the team he/she will find new team mates to finish it out. And the most important is in large team try to keep teams to like 8 and keep tourney moving along as quickly as possible because once you lose interest so do players in the tourney and people start to drop.

It's funny you should say that. I was just about to come and apologise because I got busy last few days and didn't follow up with you. I find with interviews, also, if one loses the momentum it is very difficult to get it back.

So, do you agree with a proposal like Tournament Ratings to help pressure TOs to improve their skills and play closer attention to their tournies?

I am really not sure how well this work. I do not mind the idea, but that is why we have 2 people (mcshanester29 and myself) following up on tourneys and if need be putting them up for rescue. I have just recently joined that team and have been putting in extra time making sure tourneys are updated and moving forward. Usually when TO's end up dropping the ball they usually do not finish the tourney. I havent heard of many TO's that have ran poor tourneys then come back later and run more poorly ran ones. They either stop or step up and get better at running successful tourneys. But thats just my opinion and if the people want this lets do it

How significant is the ovelap between the clan world and the tournament world? I've heard some say that tournaments are the best recruiting ground for clans, but how much of it is going the other way -- clans as recruiting ground for tournaments?

I think both are true. Team tourneys I feel are really easy to get clan mates involved. Its a good way to practice with newer clan mates so you can get the sense of how each others play. Outside of clan wars its nice to get a group of your clan mates and join a tourney. I believe you have the best chance of winning a tourney like this one playing with people you play with all the time. On the flip side though in this tourney for Foxy it gave her a chance to play with friends she has here on CC that are not in her clan. Seems like most team games that a clan member plays usually is with people from their own clan, so tourneys are the perfect way to play with your other mates that are not in the same clan. Im just glad we pulled this out because she did bring in some pretty big guns on her team.

What's your current favourite?

But I would say my favorite is one that is ongoing currently: 313's Menage a trois probably because there are lots of hot sexy CC ladies playing in it . And of course im the luckiest guy here in CC having JaneAustin and Loes on my team. Definitely 2 of the sexiest ladies here on CC Nice thing about it I just sit back and watch them work it

When we began this interview, you were at 259 completed tournaments in the Tournament Organisers Hall of Fame. I predicted that you would soon pass HA as the most prolific tournament organiser of all time. Sure enough, in the few days that we've been exchanging messages, this has come true!

You've made it to the top of the Hall of Fame; how does it feel?

Thank you! Never thought I would pass up HA, but this only happened because he is taking a break from CC I hear. Honestly I'm just happy that I get to assist in making this site such a fun place to game. Never thought I'd have ran so many tourneys but due to all the success of my tourneys I just keep making more. Somewhere around 100 I thought it would be cool to hit all maps in my Double Elim series so thats whats kept me going.Ok, I promise I won't keep harping on about it...

So, we've come to a natural point to wrap this up. Do you have anything you want to say? It's your soapbox now: any comments about the Tournament world or CC in general. Any changes you'd like to see?

Only changes I would like to see being able to multiple games that are all the same. This would help in creating tourney games.

I would like to thank some:First all the players that play in all my tourneys. Thank you without all you guys/gals I wouldnt be getting interviewed right now I'd like to thank the TD department and all the volunteers that run and keep CC moving along.Big thanks to KoRT best clan out there not just in game play but all around great group of peeps.Lastly to JaneAustin who has become my dubs best dubs partner eva!!

Some tournaments have points awarded according to the order that players are terminated. It can therefore be a laborious process to enter each game and note the orders so, even though it requires you still to enter each game, I'll show you a method of speeding up getting the results.

On each terminator game is the list of termination details:

The text from this list can be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet and if you look closely at the important termination details, say "2011-10-28 02:32:44 - JJ41375 eliminated morleyjoe from the game in round - 6" you can pick out the two player names as the first is after "- " and the second after "terminated".

There is a useful function in Excel that can find text, so =FIND("- ",C3,1) will look for the "- " characters in cell C3 which in this case holds the line of text from the game details. This comes back with "21" which is the character position of the "- " text. Similarly =FIND("eliminated ",C3,1) will come back with character position 31. We can therefore pick out the first player's name with the code =MID(C3,E3+2,F3-E3-2) which takes the middle text out of cell C3 starting at 21 plus 2 (which is the start position of the player's name) and the number of characters in the player's name is 31-21-2 i.e. start position of "terminated" less the start position of "- " less 2.

The formula to get the second player's name is =MID(C3,F3+11,FIND(" from",C3,F3)-F3-10) which uses the Find function again to get to the end of the second player's names.

So, we can get the two names in two columns of the spreadsheet using Excel functions. We now need to use a bit of Visual Basic to get rid of the two lines of text regarding points (unless your tournament uses these values of course!) so that we get the relevant lines of termination details.

In this tournament's rules (Sonic goes back to school) there is a point per termination; and extra 8 points for the winner and points that increase in the order of terminations - as shown next to the player's names.

So, on to the coding used. Firstly let me show you the finished page of results, which gives you an idea of what the required outputs are:

Click image to enlarge.

This has the game number on the left and the termination data for each game next to it. On the right is a summary list of all the totals in the order of scores and the far right column is a list of the unique terminations which was required in this tournament as there is a second medal for its leader. The two buttons trigger the two sets of code; the first "Rationalise" extracts the termination data and ascribes the scores and the second "Total" summarises the two columns of scores and terminations.

The coding for the two buttons is as follows (with descriptions within the code):

Note that this code will not work properly if a player is thrown out for missing his goes, as there are extra lines of non-relevant text in the list that have to removed manually before the code can be run.

'Do the same for the second list'Check for names the same - if so delete and add on the scoresFor i = 3 To ListEnd a = Cells(i, 15).Value b = Cells(i + 1, 15).Value If b = a Then Cells(i + 1, 16).Value = Cells(i + 1, 16).Value + Cells(i, 16).Value Cells(i, 15).Value = "" Cells(i, 16).Value = "" End IfNext i

'Do the same for the second list'Check for names the same - if so delete and add on the scoresFor i = 2 To ListEnd a = Cells(i, 5).Value b = Cells(i + 1, 5).Value If b = a Then Cells(i + 1, 6).Value = Cells(i + 1, 6).Value + Cells(i, 6).Value Cells(i, 5).Value = "" Cells(i, 6).Value = "" End IfNext i

What is then required for this particular tournament is to add all the scores together from the different "subject" sheets and publish them in the tournament thread.

(These "tips" are ones that I have tried to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. I am sure there are different and better methods than these, so please let me know. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to! Please note that I use Excel 2003, so there may be variation in the menu instructions if you have other versions of Excel)

TPA 1: State of PlayThe 9 finalists, ThrushAAX, Babagonosh, Gromph, Neva, Bones2484, Maasman, Uckuki, Mizzou3181 and Chiefsfan4ever, are about 3 games away from completing the final tournament of the 2010 Season. It certainly has been a marathon competition!

TPA 1 StandingsTPA Season 2: State of PlayThe 25th finished tournament is rjhankey and kuma32478's World Cup of Conquer Club Maps. The winner was Prince Jazbo. This huge tournament has 200 players and 8,600+ points distributed between the participants. Not bad for a tournament designed as a "Standard"!The 26th tournament to finish is one I rescued from nebsmith, ContinentsConquer:World Tour which was won by Tripitaka's team.Adding these two results to the master scoresheet gives dowian2 (3426), barterer2002 (3358), Tripitaka (2666), uckuki (2567) and arno30 (2337) as the new leaders.(Note that these scores may be less than the ones on the master spreadsheet if the player has exceeded the maximum number of scoring tournaments. The master spreadsheet does not take these into account so as to maintain checksums)

TPA 2 StandingsTPA Season 3

COMPETITION!!We now have 7 entries which is good, but we need 3 more in order that there are prizes. So get your favourite painting programme out and send me a new design!

Special EditionTournament organisers quickly realize that CC tournaments are dependent on the world around us. This inevitably leaves great potential for players to leave the site, especially over long tournaments. It's a fact every TO must deal with, and sometimes posting in the Play-Now section is not enough. Reserves are saviors because they take over for missing players, allowing play to continue and preventing the dreaded abandonment of a tourney. Why not save a tournament today by signing up?

An official Conquer Club event organised by sempaispellcheck and the Entertainment Team will revive the spirit of the 2012 Olympics! Featured game modes are 1v1, Assassin, Doubles, and more. Take part in sports such as fencing, shooting, swimming by playing on a variety of maps. Popular maps such as Treasures of Galapagos, Luxembourg, and WWII Poland are all included. Not surprisingly for this CC event, there are also five opportunities for three-months free premium for the masters of each sport!

Many players are needed at this very moment to join the Olympics! You'll play immediately upon joining!

The front page newspaper brings to life the stories of a future World War III. In this 1v1 and Standard-game tournament designed for history buffs and the prophet in all of us, competitors have the option to write their version of a future WWIII battle. From China to Brazil and to India, the war has taken 56 players across the globe who stand up for one of two broad factions: the Alliance or the Confederation. Due to the prophetic nature of the tournament, maps and settings are not set, but rather determined by the battle scenarios written by players. Meanwhile, everyone seeks to advance to the Playoffs as a Medal of Honor recipient.

The war is in need of three reserves. Post to join!

If you're looking for other tournaments in need of reserves, check out the Requests for Immediate Players section of the tournament forum. You can be playing very quickly after signing up as a reserve.

Another issue rolls around. Another set of articles for you to read. So what can we bring you today apart from the same? Well, apart from the usual Maps in development and competition (good luck by the way), Qyu has done a fantastic story for you. Personally, this I feel is one of the freshest things brought to you by the dispatch and is a must read for everyone. generalhead takes a poke at some maps bad/good ideas and how we all respond to them. I give you all something to do at home. Lastly, did you spot the maps in thenobodies80 foundry competition? If not, I bring you the winning image. Stay tuned for more competitions coming out of the foundry very shortly. Some big things are rumoured. This week, I am bringing you a new thing to think about as well.

Each issue, this cartoon will be here untill I choose a different one that is. If you can think of something that is funny and related to conquer club, send me a PM and the best one (IMO) will be on the next issue. koontz1973 -- Foundry Executive

Come here, kids, sit down around me, open your ears wide, and listen to me. I will tell you a great story. A story of an epic battle, a story of fearless knights, fighting to death for their beloved king, fighting for the love and the life of a beautiful princess, a story of contest and glory!

Indeed, some say there are two sorts of maps - those which start by a 'once upon a time', and all the others.

Once upon a time, in the Kingdom of Conquer Club, our beloved king, Lackattack Ier 'the Turtle' called his chamberlain, Evil DIMwit, for an important duty.

Lackattack Ier wrote:I want her to get married. I want her to give me lots and lots of grand-children. I want her to be complete, my little daughter. I want you to organize a big contest. A contest to find the One, those that will fulfil her heart, and earn my esteem. I want that every of my subject should have their opportunity, from the highest prince to the lowliest peasant, from the bravest knight to the most clever poet. The pretenders will have to find, create, conquer, grab... no matter what... to bring to my daughter the most beautiful dress. An outfit that displays my daughter's beauty

And that's how Evil DIMwit created the 'Capital Competition'.From the Losing Condition gameplay, each participant will have a few weeks to suggest the best outfit, the best jewel case that will suit the body of the princess :

The gameplay is as follows: There are eight capitals on the map, that are separate regions from the geographical territories they're contained within. There are eight starting positions, each of which consists of one capital and the adjoining territory: The capital starts with 9 troops and the other territory starts with 3. If at any point you don't hold a capital -- as soon as you have no capitals left -- you're eliminated from the game as if you have no territories left, and your remaining armies revert to neutral.

Three pretenders picked up the contest :The first one

Click image to enlarge.

A classical one, no surprises, but no deceptions. Like a casual blue jean, always fits well, but never allows whoever is inside to be 'unique'

a second one

Click image to enlarge.

A 'twisted' and 'stretched' solution. The pretender worked the material like a French artist. Surprising, unusual, whether we loved it or we hated it, it still left some people indifferent.Thereafter, the pretender listened to the crowd

Click image to enlarge.

And finally a third one

Click image to enlarge.

Meticulous, the pretender tried to not only make a basic map, but also imagine a story for his map, give it an intensity and an epic style, never seen before.Then again, after people suggestions

Click image to enlarge.

As the first and second one seemed too basic, even with exactly the same gameplay, it was the third one that won the poll : respectively 4 to 3 to 11. It seems like the fantasy world suited perfectly for the beautiful princess.

Once the winner was chosen, it was the time of the touching up. Oh, don't think the map was ugly, of course not, it could be a heart breaker with only a blink. No, as any woman says, make up doesn't make woman beautiful, they're already beautiful, but enhances and illuminates their natural beauty. So, that was just some blushing (darker forest), and a new hairstyle (a redesign of the legend). We must admit that most of the work was complete during the first step.

At last, the wedding was celebrated in January 2011, on the 31st. With the wishes of joy and happiness, forever. And they lived happily ever after. After all this time, Losing Condition offered to the world only one child : All your base belong to us

In conclusion, for the attention of all those who play this game, and have to level castles and other palaces, beware of the French taunts :

You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, son of a silly person! Ah blow my nose at you, so-called "Arthur Keeeng"! You and all your silly English Knnnnnnnn-ighuts!!!Ah don' wanna talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food-trough wiper! Ah fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!

The Far Side of the FoundryMap making can be serious business. Some times you get some harsh critics. Some times you are asked to make changes that you might not agree with on "Your Map". Some times some one makes a suggestion that you know will take you hours to accomplish. That is where the far side of the foundry comes in. Whenever you feel tense or stressed crack a joke and then a smile. Here are a few examples from around the foundry that have made me smile and will hopefully make you smile too.

I decided to put a saloon in my Alamo map because in The John Wayne movie "The Alamo" there was a saloon and this is the response I got.

DoomYoshi wrote:

generalhead wrote:

Seamus76 wrote:Also, sorry if it has been discussed, but what's the deal with the saloon? Why is it -1?

It has not been discussed. In the John Wayne movie the Alamo the soldiers would get drunk and get into fights in the saloon. So I figured if you hadarmies in the saloon they would be getting drunk and fighting amongst themselves. If others feel that this should not be though I don't feel that strongly about it to not change it.

Historian Timothy Todish wrote:there is not a single scene in The Alamo which corresponds to a historically verifiable incident

You shouldn't use that movie as a reference, if you do then:Peewee Herman should be on this map.

Seamus76 wrote:

by DoomYoshi on Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:39 pmPeewee Herman should be on this map.

That was one of my first thoughts too...where's the basement? lol

This is Koontz commenting on a font that Seamus76 used on a map

koontz1973 wrote:Seamus, text, for the love of god, change it. It is very hard to read instructions on this map and considering this is the large, imagine the angry mob when you do the small map

koontz1973 wrote:Have another look. When you do though, turn the text to tiny and 50 fonts per page. It comes out just larger than yours. Then find one that looks good at that size and sod the name. I really do not care if it is called Japanese bum rush, I want to read it without surgery.

Koontz didn't like a skull and crossbones on Seamus76 up and coming Tribal War-Ancient Israel map so Seamus and myself tried coming up with a few other options.

koontz1973 wrote:Skull and crossbones for a pirate map - yes!Skull and crossbones for an Israel map - really?

generalhead wrote: I still like the skull and cross bones representing death, but Koontz is the "Boss Man". I cannot find any other death symbol. the only other option would be to not have it at allmaybe you can have a picture of Davey Jones locker

Click image to enlarge.

generalhead wrote:I cannot find any other death symbol. the only other option would be to not have it at allmaybe you can have a picture of Davey Jones locker

Seamus76 wrote:lol, how about this?

Click image to enlarge.

Koontz started a thread on parody maps and this was DiM's suggested parody map with kootnz's response.

Not sure boobs is a good enough theme for a map. I would want to play with them too much.

This is the last one I will leave you with. this was a map suggestion and someone drew up a mock map for it

tirefire wrote:Map Name: FertilizationMapmaker(s): Anyone. I don't know how to design maps. I'm more of an ideas guy.Number of Territories: 62 (flexible)Special Features: Goal of the game is for a sperm to fertilize the egg, which is 100 neutral.What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: Strictly scientific, nothing scandalous. Unique strategy: cooperation AND competition. 24 starting sperm, jockeying for position along the path to the egg (2 neutral each) as it goes progressively narrower (24 to 12 to 6 to 3), then opens into a chamber with the egg, which consists of 1 egg (100 neutral troops) and two circular rows around it (inner rings 5 neutral, outer rings 2 neutral). From there, you have to decide how to attack the egg: do you save up everything until you feel like you can take it, or do you slowly chip away? Like Circus Maximus, you can only go forward, so you can't get eliminated unless you miss too many turns or get nuked out of the game.

Here is the map

ManBungalow wrote:Sounds a little like the St Patrick's day holiday map.

Or like this:

Hugh Sidey wrote:A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.

If you want to check out a map that is an explosion of funny and awesome at the same time check out the Cow Map

If you ever get the creative bug and want to try your hand at map making or just want a laugh please come visit us at The Map Foundry

thenobodies80 (foundry foreman) brought some life into the foundry by hosting what will be the first of many mini competitions over the coming months. This one was a simple spot the 10 maps in the image. Who would find all of them and send a PM to nobodies the quickest. Well:

Conquer 4 - at top of black buildingWWII Poland - bottom left corner on the road signBrazil - On the road sign under the traffic lightClassic - on the dark van in the bottom middle of the pictureSpace - in the window of the black car behind the taxicabDust Bowl - to the right of the highway but left of the big lady posterFirst Nations Americas - bottom right, on the bus stop advertisementFeudal War - on the green part of the smiling lady with sunglasses posterHigh Seas - At the top of the right buildingJapan - on a building (half hidden) in the middle of the picture, left side of the road

Expect the next competition brought to you by the blue boys sooner rather than later.

This popped up in the suggestions forum recently A question of can we get the maps to be played on at home. Whilst their are good things and bad things about the game, one thing everyone of us has in common is a love of the game and the maps we play on. sometimes though, it would be nice to play a game with a group of friends sitting down, chugging a few beers whilst all sitting in the same room. We would still claim the dice are rigged though.

So, can we all just download an image from the site and get playing. NO. for many reason this cannot be done in any nice way.Here are some of the reasons why.

The map makers own the images of the maps, so ask before you do.Text even one the large map will become almost unreadable when the image is made large enough to play.When printed on to an A3 paper, the territs are not quite big enough. A2 is a must for this to work.Here is a photo for Jakarta (one of my maps) done at A3 using my original R**K pieces with the map underneath so you can compare the size.The image quality printed at this size is not of a great quality.

Click image to enlarge.

But Andy in his usual way posted this.

Andy Dufresne wrote:Perhaps CC should focus not on boards, but simply high quality posters. Who wouldn't want to hang a poster of their favorite map over their bed? And then, when you feel like it, you could always take down the map for redecoration and relocation to your table for a while.

--Andy

So will we get maps as posters? Probably not. Another thing to consider would be which maps can be made. Large maps with lots and lots of territs could not be done, but smaller simpler maps can be. Lots of neutrals would also hamper the map being done. So we could have World 2.1, Classic or Doodle but not Feudal Epic or AYBBTU.

But that was a very easy one. time to mix it up a little and make you all work for that medal this issue.

Below this, their are ten pictures. All are 50 pixels in height and width. So very small. What you need to do is guess which maps the pictures are from. I have not altered them in any way. First one to post the names of each mapand themap makers name wins. Good luck.

First 5 are all in normal play. . . . .

Next 2 are all in beta play. .

Next 3 are all in main foundry forum. . .

If a map has more than one map maker, I will accept either one or both. The answers do not need to be in any order. As long as you have the correct ten maps and ten names, they can be all jumbled up. Post in the dispatch thread first for the win.

Good luck again.

Happy gaming everyone, whatever map takes your fancy.

Crunch time in Conqueror's Cup action, as all 4 Quarterfinals are as tense as a doorknob.All Comers Cup action has stagnated with the disappearance of DJ Teflon, while The Newcomers Cup is reaching the end of the Semi-final stage

We also have only 1 game left underway in the Clan League, and it's the biggie between Kort & AoC for the Division 1 Crown. Peddle for the Medal all the way folks!

25vs.24-OSA rocketed to a surprise early lead against the Double Defending Champions, but Kort have steadily clawed their way back and indeed have finally overhauled the erstwhile leaders. Indeed, most projections have Kort eking out the win, with the return of Josko.ri adding at least 4 more wins to their current total on his specialty Unlimited offerings. With a Supermax & Pelo War trips also leaning the way of KoRT, the #1 seeds should be favourite to proceed

23vs.15-Tofu have also been the leaders for a large proportion of the context. And Similarly to the preceding contest, The Pack are also making a late surge, to bring this to within 7 in decided games. Pack also hold slim yet identifiable leads in 4 or 5 other games, but the rest of the games are decidedly still up in the air with close battles throughout. Tofu should be still favored to advance however, not only because of their much-vaunted line-up, but also because 'birds in the hand are worth two in the bush'. Thus, the effects of having points on the board and 'scoreboard pressure' cannot be underestimated. So with Tofu perhaps only needing 6 more wins at most from the remaining match-ups; even if all the undecided games are split evenly, they should win comfortably. So the pressure is certainly on Pack to engineer victories, and while they are clearly capable of doing so, it is a tough task for any clan!

29vs.29- The most nail-biting challenge yet, with Iberia just recently going to Afos and turning this into a dead heat.Triple Alliance is looking like a win for the Monkeys, so they only need 1 from the last 2 to win, and it looks like Feudal Epic may be the decider for them. The last game Forbidden City has been a tight affair, but I'm sure both sides are relieved to not have it as the decider, considering the palpitations it could cause. However, it mustn't be forgotten that former conqueror mc05025 is defending Feudal Epic against the mighty TSM onslaught, so he's certainly one to bring a bunny out of the hat!

26vs.30- AoC also hold 1 hand on the title by reaching 30 wins extremely quickly, and holding an 8 point gap at 1 stage. That has dwindled quickly as in so many of the other QF's, Empire has had a late resurgence. 4 consecutive wins have brought them in to the hunt, and with Battle of Iraq & Imperium Romanum seemingly in their pocket as well as Antarctica leaning that way, they definitely have a shot at pulling off an extraordinary come-back.Napoleanic Europe seems to lean this way and that, so that could be a worthy contest fitting to encapsulate this war, while the Agents of Chaos will be hoping that Fractured America will give them the win they so desperately crave!

Newcomers Cup 3 Semi-Final news will be waiting in the final for the winner of the Second Semifinal.

The Fallen already hold the advantage with a 16-11 scoreline over 1RFG. They also seem to have wrapped another 5 towards them, so they'll be eagerly looking forward to win #22, while the Regiment will be earnestly trying to recover and gain the ascendancy on the final descent.

Clan League 4: Division 1 Final[CL4] Phase 4 - Div 1 ~ KoRT vs AOC (3-0)With the last match in play for Clan League Season 4, the denouement looks to certainly live up to it's billing with kort and AoC competing in a heavily contested affair.Kort have taken the early 3-0 lead, but look forward to an entertaining affair as these 2 heavyweights duke it out.

Did I lose because I posted in the wrong place? Link where I postedPostby generalhead on Sat Dec 01, 2012 5:35 pm I wish there would have been a link in the article on where to post the results.If I didn't win Congrats to Swifte if he got them all correct.

I'm also amazed at how much I can follow of DaveH's Tournament tips, it may seem intimidating at first, but when you look at the output scoring charts he produces, and the logical steps he follows in achieving them, it ends up being a breeze. And heck copy/paste still works if you don't have the head for code

Thanks Leehar It's encouraging feedback and pleasing to know that at least one person is reading it!